CINCINNATI — Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell will be the next head coach at Wisconsin, sources confirmed to The Athletic on Sunday.

Fickell informed Cincinnati on Sunday morning he would be leaving to take the new job.

Sources close to Cincinnati’s program told The Athletic on Sunday that high-ranking administrators within the athletic department have been aware and prepared for the possibility of Fickell’s departure for a couple of weeks, with Nebraska and Wisconsin showing interest.

A source familiar with the negotiations also told The Athletic that Fickell’s wife, Amy, visited Madison, Wis., this month to explore the Badgers’ interest in Fickell for the head coaching position.

Sources close to Cincinnati told The Athletic that Bearcats administrators have been in conversation with Fickell in recent weeks about what could be done to keep him at Cincinnati, including a willingness to increase the assistant salary pool, among other things, but that when the Wisconsin offer ultimately came, Fickell felt this was the right time and situation for him to pursue.

Fickell informed Bearcats administrators of his decision to accept the Wisconsin job Sunday morning and then met with Cincinnati players and staff.

Bearcats special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach Kerry Coombs has been named the interim head coach, sources told The Athletic.

But so many of the resources and benefits Bearcats head coaches have long sought, Fickell included, finally were available.

The culture, evaluation and development shepherded by Fickell at Cincinnati elevated the Bearcats to the four-team Playoff and garnered a Big 12 invite, as well as increased resources, season ticket sales and general investment from the university and community.

(Cincy Reigns, an all-sports collective intending to benefit Bearcats athletes, was launched and announced last week after being in the works for months.) Fickell, who has been hesitant to embrace NIL as a recruiting tool, has been frustrated by numerous decommitments and lost recruiting battles due to NIL in recent months, sources told The Athletic.

Whoever becomes the next head coach of Cincinnati football will assume a mix of significant challenges, advantages and aspirations